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May 15, 2016

Joy on Demand, a New Book by Chade-Meng Tan

Meng likes to jokingly point out that he and I share three things:

1) We both speak English;
2) We both speak Chinese, and
3) We both speak geek.

At the pinnacle of Asian culture, we find a singular, stunning discovery whose universality, simplicity, and transformational potential match the great achievements of technology. There are two parts to this discovery. First: a person's core attentional skills—concentration power, sensory clarity power, and equanimity—can be dramatically elevated through systematic practice. Second: those skills enhance all aspects of a person's well-being, although for some aspects that effect is more direct and immediate while for other aspects, it may be indirect and probabilistic. Conveniently, it is precisely the deepest aspects of happiness that are most directly and immediately impacted through the development of attentional skills.

But you have to know where to start and what to look for. That's what Meng delivers. He delivers it with the clarity you would expect from one of Google's pioneering engineers, but also with a good measure of lightness and humor. While you're laughing, he's stealthily dropping the medicine into your mouth.